Chapter 3
"What would you like to know?" AJ asked Brenda.
"Whatever you'd like to tell me," she answered with a smile.
AJ was quiet for a moment and then began to speak, "I always wanted to serve my country so the Navy just seemed to be a natural choice for me. I married young and it didn't last long. My ex-wife took our daughter and returned to her native Italy. I didn't see my daughter for over twenty years. Then she contacted me and we began to forge a new relationship. I've had many jobs in the Navy. I was a SEAL and then a lawyer and now JAG. There have been a few relationships along the way, but I've pretty much given up on that since I found my fiancée in bed with another man."
When he finished speaking Brenda laid a hand on his, "I'm sorry about your fiancée, but she was a foolish woman to give up someone as kind as you."
"Well enough about me. Why don't you tell me about you?" he asked trying to change the subject from Meredith.
"Let's see…I was born and raised in Kentucky. Was in a bad, abusive marriage right out of high school, and after divorcing him, married again within the year. Tony gave me a daughter that we managed to raise through some very wild teenage years. I moved up here about seven years ago after Tony was killed by falling off a horse on a trail ride. I just needed to get away, but now I'm wondering if I should have left Kentucky because my daughter just recently married and is now expecting a baby. So I'm about to become a grandmother."
"A grandmother? I find that hard to believe! You can't be more than thirty-five!" AJ protested.
"Aren't you sweet?" she asked with a laugh. "My daughter is twenty-four and I just turned forty-four last month."
"I really find that hard to believe," he told her with a smile.
"Well thank you, it's always nice to be mistaken for younger than you are rather than older."
"What made you decide to become a dance instructor?" he asked hoping that she wouldn't question him about his age.
"It was the only thing that I knew how to do other than being a wife and mother. My mother told me from the time I was little that I was the most uncoordinated child she had ever seen so kept me enrolled in dance classes all my life. I guess somewhere along the line I grew out of the awkward phase," she gave a self-depreciating laugh.
"You certainly did! You're the most graceful creature I've even seen," AJ told her with all sincerity.
"Thank you again, I think that one deserves a kiss," Brenda said and leaned over intending to kiss his cheek, but he had turned his head to look at her in surprise at her words and their lips met.
The kiss was a surprise to them both, it was just a touch of their lips, but somehow on some level both of them knew it was much more than that. He was just about to pull back when her lips opened and she uttered a soft, "Oh."
AJ knew he would remember that moment for the rest of his life. The moment that her amazement at such a simple kiss caused him to realize that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He was in love.
Brenda knew she would remember that moment for the rest of her life. The moment when a simple kiss caused her to realize that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with this man. To her amazement she was in love.
Without even realizing that he had made the decision to do so AJ put his arms around her pulling her close and deepening the kiss. Her sigh of pleasure and her arms coming up around his neck was all he needed to know that she approved of his actions.
The fact that the kiss heated up as quickly as it did surprised them both, but whether it was the fact that it had been a long time between relationships for both of them, or mutual need, or even the fact that they had both just realized they loved the other, whatever the reason, the kiss went from pleasant to passion in a few moments. When AJ felt her melting against him, he pulled her up off the hard floor and into his lap. She moaned against his lips and ran her hands over his head in approval.
To be continued…
